Chapter 41: Chapter 34, Giving one’s name has consequences

Chapter 34, Giving one's name has consequences

 

 

Zelaria

I continue running through the night and storm until I reach the forest I’d spotted on the horizon the evening yesterday. It took a few hours of constant running at full speed but when I stepped onto the soft moss underneath the first tree I finally felt clean again. Not physically clean as I had mud splattered all over my nude body from the wet road but emotionally. After Ari cleans me up a little more thoroughly with the cleaning mist I manifest back my clothes and lean against the thick bark of the oak I'm sheltering under.

“I don’t know why their talk about killing and then raping my corpse got that much under my skin. It just made me feel all disgusted being in the same region as those murderers and I wanted them erased immediately.”

“I can’t say I disagree with your feelings. Both murder and rape are horrible things but raping your murder victim takes it to another level.”

“Yeah, I guess. Let's not talk about it and just forget about them. I don’t want to be reminded about my previous encounter with rapists either. I was young and naive at the time and they never succeeded but it’s still a memory I’d rather forget.”

“Should I remove it? It will be very painful but I could probably cut that part out.”

 

I seriously considered accepting her offer for a short moment. I’d almost forgotten about one of my first nasty encounters when entering the Riverflow kingdom at 14 years of age before this meeting had brought it all back again. I’d been starving and alone in a gutter, not a coin to my name and no ideas on how to make more. Well, no ideas I was willing to go through with.

Had I not prepared a sharp rock and an escape route beforehand I might have fallen prey to those older men finding me there, drunk and looking for a victim to play with. I’m not sure if the rock going through the man's eye had killed him as my memory of the escape is fuzzy in my mind. It’s one of my worst memories of that time though.

“No. Let’s not do that. It feels too much like mutilating ourselves by artificially cutting it out. It’s a part of us even if not a part we’d like to have. We’ll just have to let it disappear underneath the happier memories we'll make together in the now and future.”

“Good answer.”

Stretching a little I lean away from the oak’s trunk and start running through the path in the forest towards my goal. The rain and wind is making the oak, maple and aspen trees on the roadside sway and creek while their leaves rustle and the water splatters against their green surfaces. The thunder is still an ever present background noise but it’s moving away towards the capital, no lightning bolts striking the trees around me.

The water is going through my top and pants with only my boots managing to resist being completely soaked. The small glints of light from campfires interspersed along the road, hidden from sight behind the swaying trees, looks very inviting to warm myself around. I don’t want to impose though and I’ve gotten enough of humans for tonight. It’s better to just reach the dungeon as soon as possible.

Nothing really happens during my run through the nightly storm and the most exciting thing was a courier blazing past me going towards the capital. He must have been a very high leveled courier as he was at least twice as fast as me. I also saw a wolf crossing the road, thinking for a moment that I’d get to fight a pack of them to break up the monotony of running. It was alone though and just ran away when seeing me.

 

The first exciting thing to happen is when I come upon a three-way junction with aged looking wooden signs with arrows pointing towards their destinations. My glowing eyes take in the signs and read all of them. The one pointing towards the way I came simply reads ‘Capital’ and the one pointing further southeast, in the continuation of the road I’ve been traveling on, reads ‘Liori City'. It’s the last sign pointing to the road connecting to the one I’m standing on that’s most interesting though.

It points towards the northeast and reads ‘Grizklesat Dungeon’. There’s no more information but I know it isn’t that far away from here. The information on the dungeon locations in the gathering postings are at least sufficient to find them even if you’ve never been there before.

I continue running along the slightly narrower road leading northeast and can see a marked increase in the number of campfires hiding between the treeline. Probably a lot of adventurers who decided to set up camp here for the night instead of running the last bit towards the dungeon. I can dimly hear laughter and song from a few of them and even what sounds like a chorus of loud moaning and grunting from an especially bright patch of light located a little closer to the road. I don’t stop to investigate the strangers' nighttime activities though.

I only need another half an hour to reach my goal and I exit the road and treeline into a wide clearing, probably 250 meters in diameter, with a hole in the ground in its center. Over 30 tents are perched all around the open grass and an inn stands to the rightmost side of the open space. I stop to take in the sight and spot a few adventurers huddled around campfires and some walking between the inn and the tents. There must be at least a hundred adventurers here and probably more in the rented rooms at the inn.

 

The inn is blazing with warm light through windows smattering with the rain still falling heavily from the dark sky and I can see people dancing, drinking and laughing inside even from this distance. They must have quite the festive mood going on in there as it’s getting close to dawn by now.

The hole in the ground is what I assume to be the dungeon as there’s really nothing else here that could be called an entrance of any sort. I deliberate about going in to warm myself in the light and heat of the inn for a while but I honestly don’t want to interact with anyone before the delve. They might try to invite me to join their party or something and I’ll have to decline. It’s much faster to level when you get all the experience for yourself and Ari’s all the company I need.

“Ari, are you okay with starting the delve now?”

“Yes. We can always spend some time at the inn after we’ve conquered this dungeon. It will be more relaxing that way and we’ll have something to talk about if anyone decides to come up and chat.”

I walk towards the hole in the ground and it becomes clear that the look of a hole is a bit deceptive. As I reach it I can see a stone staircase leading down and the walls of the tunnel going downwards becomes stone only a meter below the dirt above. It seems like this must be the dungeon entrance as the smooth and untarnished look of the stone steps tell of its mana infused nature. I can also feel it with my sensors as the entrance is positively bursting with power contained all around it. I start walking down the stone steps, water cascading down the steps along with me. The dungeon must be getting a good drink from this heavy rain.

“Halt! Identify yourself!”

A shout from behind makes me stop and I turn around to stare up at a younger woman, maybe in her thirties, clad in adventurer gear and with the Adventurer Guild emblem pinned to her chest. I identify her instead of answering.

 

 

[Mage - Level ??]

 

 

A regular mage? That’s quite rare but she seems to have made good progress in the class. She scowls at me and I can feel her identifying me in turn. I don’t really mind but I am curious about what she wants.

“Who are you?”

“I’m the Adventurers' Guild representative guarding this entrance.”

That explained it. She must be the one making sure that only adventurers and no undesired people make their way in. Having a child or a cult trying to summon an eldritch horror enter a dungeon isn’t a good idea after all.

“Can I see your badge?”

She huffs slightly but still holds it out towards me as I walk up the stairs and approach her. All guild representatives have identification verifying them to avoid impersonators. I don’t really think this woman is lying to me but it never hurts to check. I touch her badge.

 

[Adventurers' Guild Representative]

 

Nothing more is shown but it’s enough. A skilled enough forger might be able to make a copy of one of these badges and fool someone but they’d be found out sooner or later. It’s honestly not worth the hassle.

“Thank you. I’m Zelaria. You want to check my token, I take it?”

“That’s correct. I can see your level of course but I still need to see your rank on the token in case you’re using an artifact to trick my identification. Not that it’s common but it has happened before.”

I summon my token from my storage ring before holding it to her and letting her press a finger against it.

“All seems to be in order.”

“Do you know if there are any other teams currently delving?”

She thinks for a short moment as she looks back towards the inn.

“I think there’s currently three teams who haven’t come up yet. Don’t know if they died or just decided to stay the night in the dungeon though.”

“Only three teams? Why is everyone up here at night? Shouldn’t they be delving for at least a week or something before coming up again?”

She chuckles and looks at me with raised eyebrows.

“Most people here consider the inn and festivities the superior part of being an adventurer and only delve as far as they can each day before returning later in the evening, sharing tales of glory, dancing, drinking, smoking or fucking. Satiating whatever desires they might have before returning to the dungeon the day after to repeat it all once more.”

“That sounds like a fun lifestyle for like a week a year or something. Not to do your whole adventuring career.”

“I agree with you, Zelaria. But most adventurers aren’t in it for the adventure and are merely looking to gather resources to fund their expenses while living on the edge a little every day. It’s not wrong to live like they do but I can’t help but feel they’re missing out on the rest of what adventuring has to offer.”

“Well said! What’s your name?”

“Gina.”

“Alright, Gina. Don’t write me off as dead then if I don’t exit this dungeon for a while. I’m going to conquer it before I come out of there. See you!”

“ARE YOU INSANE?!”

 

Her incredulous and slightly shrill voice hits my back as I skip down the stairs and almost slip on a maple leaf on the slick stone. Would have been embarrassing to fall right after making that statement.

“Lucky you didn’t fall there, Zel.”

Ari thought the same apparently.

As I go lower into the darkness I raise the glow of my eyes once more to be able to see anything. The stairs going down are straight for about 150 steps before coming to an end, the corridor at the bottom turning sharply left out of sight. Light is flickering from beyond the bend, looking a bit ominous and just like I’d expect a dungeon entrance to be like. Reaching the end of the staircase and stepping towards the light ahead I get the expected notification.

 

 

Ding! You have entered the Grizklesat dungeon.

 

 

I feel a slight quiver run through the ethereal connection going to my bound adventurer token and I summon it back out from the storage ring before examining what’s changed.

 

[Adventurer Token]

Name: Zelaria
Rank: Gold

Dungeons:
Grizklesat - 1/17

Postings:
Capture - Gold

Accepted postings:
Gathering - Gold
Gathering - Gold
Gathering - Gold

 

The dungeon and my progression through its 17 floors is now listed here. I see why some adventurers like collecting dungeons to boast about how far they managed to delve and so on. It’s interesting but I don’t think I’ll forget what floor I’m on. This will mostly be a collection of mine to mark my progress when I’ve left here.

“Um. Ari?”

“Yes, love?”

“Should we announce ourselves to the dungeon? I don’t think most adventurers do that but we know about the architect and the subsystem souls.”

“I have no idea if that’s a good idea or not. It might make them happy or it might just draw unwanted attention towards us.”

“I see. We’ll think about it. Maybe we could thank them for the delve after we’ve reached the last floor?”

“That might be more reasonable. I have no idea if they’ll react at all to it but I guess a little appreciation can’t really go wrong.”

As I step forwards towards the bend in the corridor the water running down with me just seems to diminish and vanish. I suppose it’s being absorbed and converted into mana by the dungeon core. It’s honestly fascinating how this all works and I wonder why The system even creates the dungeon cores. Is there a reason behind them? A reason for pushing people to gain levels and increase in power? I hope I find the answer to that question some day but in the meantime I guess my own reasons are enough.

You are reading story Celestial [A Progression Fantasy LitRPG] at novel35.com

 

---

 

Julie

“Honestly! Why did he have to request our presence as soon as we came back?! The weather’s horrible and I haven’t taken a bath in like forever.”

Howard rolls his eyes at me but doesn’t comment. I can tell he’s as irritated by the king's abrupt summons as I am. We do have a great deal to tell him of course. The events that took place in the Rhodolite Peaks have been a complete disaster and I can’t see how it’s going to get any better.

The wind whips my wet hair into my eyes and I scowl as another thunderbolt hits a lightning rod on one of the roofs. I’d been looking forward to some time to freshen up and visit some of my contacts in the capital. They usually hold their meetings at this time of the month and even though I don’t worship the Fertility goddess as they do I still enjoy their ritualistic orgies immensely.

Now though I’ll probably have to report to the king and then sit in meetings for a few days before being sent on a new assignment. Honestly… Nothing seems to be going right as of now.

“Miss Julie, Sir Howard. Glad to see that you made it here on time.”

Chief Minister Serranix, the most loyal retainer of the king, greets us as we enter through the central wall. He’s looking as unflappable as ever and not even the rain or stormy winds manage to ruffle his immaculate appearance. I’m envious of this magical trick of his as I’m currently looking like a drenched cat.

“Sir Serranix. Please lead the way. We’ve had a long journey back and we’d like to get this done soon. I’m sure that his majesty feels the same.”

Howard’s comment merely brings a shallow nod from the Chief Minister and he signals at us to follow as he makes his way towards one of the luxurious coaches stationed at the central wall’s gate. Walking all the way to the king's palace in this weather isn’t something any of us feels like doing.

I step into the coach after Howard, not really a gentleman but I knew that already, and take a seat next to him as Serranix sits himself in front of us.

“I know that our mission in the Rhodolite Peaks hasn't gone well and there’s much to speak with his majesty about but why this urgency? Has something else happened while we were away?”

Serranix gives me a blank and inscrutable look before answering.

“His majesty received some information about your… failure, about half a week ago. That is to say before you’d made your way here. My guess would be that he’d like to hear about what happened on your mission from you as well before making any further decisions.”

I turn to look at Howard who is looking right back at me. What did this mean? We hadn’t told anyone about the results of the expedition into the Rhodolite Peaks on our way here. Who could have possibly spread that information?

The carriage trundles past the wet flowerbeds and exotic, swaying trees dotting the landscape on each side of the white marble cobbled road. Serranix doesn’t speak anymore to us and we’re content to just relax a little before our audience with his majesty.

 

---

The carriage stops before the palace entrance, grand six meter tall double doors made from mana enriched metallic alloys decorated with gold, and we walk up the imperious marble steps towards them. Statues line the staircase leading up to the entrance, depicting beasts and heroic men alike. The palace itself is 50 meters in height and made of white marble and blood birch. Bronze roof tiling bestrewn with half a dozen meter tall golden spires cover the slanting surfaces.

Stained glass mosaic windows with depictions of landscapes and visually pleasing patterns dot the walls here and there, looking out over the enormous gardens, completing the look of opulence. The inside of the palace is much the same but I’ve grown used to it by now. I don’t even bat an eye at the marvelous sights as we make our way through corridors and stairwells up towards the king's private meeting room.

He doesn’t want to speak with us in the throne room? Why?

 

As I step through the heavily decorated dark oak door I see the king sitting on his seat at the end of the large, rectangular conference table, looking out the stained but still transparent mosaic window behind him, a distant look in his eyes.

He’s quite tall even when sitting down as he stands at a height of 2 meters. He’s got auburn hair, brown eyes and a thin beard, if still immaculately tended to, framing his otherwise slightly chubby face of middle age and covering a weak jawline I know to lie beneath. The ornate crown on his head is made of solid gold with diamonds and large rubies encrusted around its edge.

He slowly turns his head towards us as the chief minister closes the door to the chamber and we move into a bow.

“Greetings, Your Majesty.”

“You may rise and take a seat.”

He lazily waves us to three of the remaining chairs, having Howard and I seat ourselves on the king's left while the minister seats himself on his right.

“Do you know why I called you here, Julie?”

The informal address doesn’t take me by surprise as we’re currently in a private meeting.

“I’ve got some ideas on why but I’m not sure about the urgency, your majesty.”

“No need to be so formal right now.”

“Thank you, William.”

His name is William Flowheart. A descendant of the man who unified the scattered people of this region and drove out the empire. He nods shallowly in thanks before continuing.

“From what I’ve heard, our time to make preparations is very limited. My source is questionable though and I would like to hear your side of things to validate its claims.”

“Make preparations?”

Howard sounds confused at the king’s statement and I can relate to him. We might need to gather a larger force than a mere hundred adventurers and find a better way to protect ourselves against the curse to make another attempt at cleansing the region but this sounds like something else.

“I’m still not sure if my information is incorrect. Please, give me a detailed report.”

 

Howard and I speak about the things that transpired on our expedition. How we came upon the first fungi parasites in the outer regions of the mountains and of how the curse seemed to create them. I expand in a detailed manner about making our camp and scouting out the infestation, making preparations to assail it and cut out the source.

Howard takes over and explains the assailing of the infestation, on how we met mounting resistance and the many gold ranks meeting their ends in carelessness. How we made it to the edge of the mountain where an entrance had been dug out into its side and how we almost made it in before the enormous pulse of cursed mana killed all the gold ranks.

“Couldn’t you prevent the curse from killing them with your light magic?”

The king interrupts Howard's report and looks at me.

“I’m afraid not. I’d been combating the ever increasing strength of the curse until the moment we reached the entrance. It was tiresome but doable. The problem was the sheer amount of power in that final wave of cursed mana spreading out from the mountain as we neared it. The potency was high enough to instantly kill everyone under diamond rank and even Howard and I had to flee.

"Howard’s enormous constitution and vitality kept him alive as we made our escape. I myself am capable of protecting myself better with light magic and only suffered a little more than him.”

I continue explaining how we made it back to our expedition’s base only to find out that the remaining people left behind to guard it were already dead and turned into more parasites.

“We stayed at a nearby mountain top for three whole days to scout out any other changes but with nothing of note except the expanding infestation we decided to head back towards the kingdom.”

The king drums a finger absently on the table as I finish my explanation before stating a question.

“You didn’t meet up with any of the diamond ranks of the Damasus or Fioran kingdoms, I take it?”

“We didn’t. We assumed they’d be dead or returning back to their kingdoms as the wave of cursed mana must have swept over any force stationed around the region.”

After my answer Howard states his own question.

“Is this in line with the information you somehow obtained beforehand?”

The king nods solemnly. Staying quiet for almost half a minute before speaking up and explaining.

“It is indeed in line with the information I’ve received from another source. Their recollection is as detailed as yours and even includes some more information that I didn’t want to believe. With you confirming some of it though… I’d be a fool to not consider the rest of the information valid as well.”

Who could have even more information on the events taking place there than us?

 

The Chief Minister takes over the explanation as William goes silent.

“I received a request for aid from Birch town. They want to prepare for evacuation and have another town built further east in case we can’t stop the invasion.”

“Invasion?”

Are we still talking about the same thing? It’s an infestation and not an invasion. William takes up the explanation again.

“They included an information missive in their request, detailing everything you’ve just confirmed for me and more. According to the source of the information who spoke directly to the ruler of Birch this is no mere monster infestation. There are creatures coming up from the depths, taking over the surface and these parasites are merely their enslaved workforce.”

“Do we know who the source is?”

Howard’s question has a tone of ill concealed hope in it. Why do his eyes almost look pleading?

“Yes. The information comes from a white haired and golden eyed adventurer called Zelaria. Last I heard she was renting a property in the outer district. I don’t know her exact location though as the information brought by her wasn’t confirmed until now.”

Howard lets out a sigh of relief beside me while I freeze in place. Shocked to my core.

It can’t be her! It just can’t! There’s no fucking way.

“I want you to go and fetch her for me. You may rest for tonight and freshen up but I’d like to speak to her personally tomorrow and you should be there as well... Are you two alright?”

Both Howard and I start and return our full attention towards William. I’m not sure what to say. How do I explain my fears without sounding insane or just petty? Could anyone understand my alarm at the one person who brought all my insecurities into the light coming back from the dead? Howard is the only one knowing of my mental issues and telling the king is out of the question. Or is it all just a big coincidence? It might not even be the same person. It’s been over 60 years after all. How could she be alive? I saw her die.

Howard’s response however, breaks my hopes and makes me clam up once more.

“We knew her but thought she died 60 years ago in the Mistyridge mountain region. I met her in the Rhodolite Peaks before the infestation assault though and I had feared that she’d died for real this time. She must have been close to the epicenter of the enormous pulse of cursed mana when it went off.”

“You met her after having presumed her dead for 60 years? What was she doing there?”

The king’s question is delivered in a slightly suspicious tone as this seems so far-fetched.

“She was there alone, killing parasites and grinding her levels. She’d apparently been at it for almost a month when I ran into her.”

 

Thoughts race through my mind at lightning speed. Zelaria is alive? Howard had met with her? When? The light I’d seen on the top of the mountain... The light I asked Howard to investigate…

That had been the day before the assault and also a night where Howard fucked me like there was no tomorrow, incoporating pain in the pleasure. Had he done that to distract me from remembering to ask him more questions about the light?

“Alright then. We’ll have to question her thoroughly and get all the answers we can out of her. She might also make a good addition to join you in the defense of the kingdom as she apparently survived the curse just as you two did.”

Howard looks pleased for a second before catching my furious look. He won’t be getting to fuck me for a week after this betrayal of his. How could he have kept this hidden from me?

The chief minister coughs lightly into a hand and forces me to smooth out my features and nod at William. What am I doing? I can’t show these emotions in front of a king.

“You will find her tomorrow and bring her to the throne room. I’ll gather the necessary personnel who’ll be needed for the questioning. You’re dismissed.”

Howard and I both rise from our seats before bowing and walking backwards slightly, raising ourselves again and turning to walk out the door. An invasion I could deal with but Zelaria? My irrational feelings and insecurities that I’d thought I’ve gotten over are resurfacing just thinking about her. What will meeting her once more do to me? Will I even be able to remain in control and not switch over?

“Howard. What did she look like?”

I can see him considering evading my question or lying to me but letting out a sigh and steeling himself before giving me a sad smile, knowing fully how much his answer is going to hurt, he answers truthfully.

“More beautiful than the day we thought we’d lost her.”

My shoulders sag and my jaw clenches shut tight, teeth practically grinding against each other. Why does this happen to me? Why can’t I just let it go and love myself for who I am and not compare myself to her? The scars left on my mind by my father have lessened with Howard's aid and my own efforts over the years but am I ready for this?

This will be one hell of a reunion and I’ll be surprised if I don’t accidentally strangle her at the first cocky grin she shoots my way.

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